The echo of a soft whistle preceded the god of fidelity as he strolled down the street. He was far, far from home, and yet he possessed no sense of urgency to return. His princess was here, and that meant that this was where he was meant to be as well. Of course, when said princess was all but avoiding him, that didn’t make this place terribly easy to be, but that was simply a part of his path to walk; he could not change how his love felt toward him, and he had no inclination to change her, not even for his own happiness. He would walk beside her, or behind her until Ragnarok, and then again after if his luck held out.

And so the melancholy man whistled a jaunty tune, doing what his Queen would call ‘faking it till he was making it’ ignoring much of the hubbub around him as the citizens of Hub went about their morning.

It was by chance that a door opened as he approached, spilling out the most delicious smells. The scent of quality foodstuffs caught his attention.

Loki always did enjoy a good sweet pastry…

The door chimed as he entered the cafe, moving into the building to see if they might have anything for him to eat, and something sweet to take to his princess.

Belle smiled widely spinning with unconcious grace, tennis shoes squeaking on the polished not!linoleum floor as she dodged a pair of children playing tag, hosting her full tray over her head, waving off the frantic apologies of the mother?father? Parent. Their green warty frogfish appearance doing nothing to disguise the universal feeling of parental embarrassment for misbehaving offspring.

It was healed with out a scar, so many kindnesses granted to her by friends and strangers alike.

It still itches.

Setting down her burden Belle turned a flushed smile towards the door- “Come on in! Find a seat anywhere I’ll be right there!” she promised flouncing to shift the platters of food to their destinations.

She really needed to hire help, lord knew the cafe was holding its own and even making back the money she’d spent to set it up, and she did have help, but somehow she always found herself in the thick of things.

“How are ya doin’?” From any other ‘waitress’ that might have come across as polite opener for an order, from Belle...well maybe this was one of the reasons she was doing so well, from Belle it was a genuine inquiry as to his state of wellbeing. “My name is Belle, whats got ya tempted?”

There were children running amok within the cafe, and the sight of it brought a smile to Sigyn’s lips. It was so good to see that there were little ones in this strange city. So much like home, seeing them play so carefree, and yet so much different than the children of Asgard.

The red haired woman tending the cafe called him in and he grinned merrily over to her, any sense of malcontent or despondency evaporating in the face of her obviously genuine cheer and care. This was certainly his sort of establishment, if they had sweet things as well as more savory dishes, he would certain be visiting again. Nodding to her as he moved to find an empty table, settling into a chair, his eyes roving around the interior of the building.

It was so comfortable here. Perhaps, when she was again willing to spend time with him, he could bring his princess here for an early lunch. Best to taste the menu before he did something like that, then. Much as he loved her, Sigyn was also aware that she was quite particular.

“It has been a fair day to me thus far, thank you.” He smiled to her, the expression crinkling the corners of his eyes and making them warm even more than they had already been. “I am called Sigyn. I’m not sure what it was that I smelled when I walked in, but it smelled sweet and delicious. And I was hoping that maybe you’d have pastries for me to bring back home with me?” He almost seemed done before he looked up at her, his eyes going just a touch wide, “And do you make the iced cream here? That… Is a true treat. Midgard has the finest sweets…”

The corners of Belle’s eyes crinkled with her wide smile hinting at where time would mark her easy joy if she ever put down the ring that held it at bay- “Now thats good ta hear.” She exclaimed with genuine warmth, tapping the table top, a menu that auto-filtered for detected incompatible foods popped up for him. Now Hub might not let a man get poisoned but that didn’t stop ..[i]other[i] issues that could arise. And the last thing Belle wanted was for her food to be associated with night on what ever they used for a commode!

“That’d likely be either the cinnamon rasian buns, or mincepies.” Hub, the Bazarr anyway might be seasonless, but her calendar said it was December which meant instead of peaches, her menu was dominated with ginger bread, peppermint, and pumpkin spice.

“Ah don’t make it in house-“ too much time, she already struggled with the menu she had! “But ah have it available.” Belle reached down to the table brining up the correct selection- “The peppermint gingerbread crumble ice cream is our current flavor, but there’s always the standards-“ images of vanilla, chocolate, strawberry, blueberry and of course rocky road popped up.

The lady of the shop seemed downright pleasant; a Midgardian by the looks of her, but there was nothing wrong with Midgardians! His Queen liked them enough. And this woman was both lovely to behold as well as lovely to interact with, at least thus far. People could turn out to be different than you thought sometimes. And didn’t that thought threaten to dim his mood…

Shoving such considerations aside for a gloomier day than this, Sigyn smiled at the red haired maiden that was playing proprietor as well as server. “Which would you suggest for a hungry man wandering the streets of this city today? Or… Maybe one of each.” He was very hungry now, surrounded in the sweet smells that had drawn him into the cafe in the first place.

She didn’t make the ice cream, but she had some. The grin that spread his lips wide also made his eyes twinkle with a joy that was hard to describe. Something you might expect to find in a child rather than a man, especially a god as old as Sigyn was. Still… Iced cream. “I’ll try strawberry. It has a lovely color.”

She was so very helpful, and Sigyn had plenty of coin to spend. “Let’s make up a basket. I’m not certain which she’ll prefer, and it’s always best to err on the side of caution when it comes to my princess.” He grinned at her question, “On Midgard, you sometimes call us that, yes. I am of Asgard.” He gave her a deep nod in acknowledgement of her educated guess. Her very educated guess, as many Midgardians didn’t know about Asgard at all.

“Ifen ya are in the mood for sweet why na try the pie with a bit of vanilla ice cream?” she offered, “Too many flavors might spoil your enjoyment.” she half warned, perfectly happy to deliver the requested strawberry, but giving her personal warning that it might be smarter to go slowly. “An’ maybe some hot caramel chocolate with the buns?”

‘Princess’? Belle’s happy smile softened, in his voice she heard his affection, and Belle responded to it, falling happily into older sister/matron mode; it hardly mattered to the red head that this man might be older than her, she was a woman and he was attempting to please the one he cared for. “A’course we can.” Belle winked conspiratorially. “Can ya tell me what she likes most? Savory? Sweet? Simple? Complex?” she settled the first plate of pie infront of him. “This a basket just because or ya done something ta be in the doghouse?” hopefully the idiom translated.

Asgard? Belle’s mental rolodex found the myths of her world and wondered just how close they ran to where he was from.

Eat pie with the iced cream? That was novel. But then, so was the entire idea of iced cream for him. Too many flavors, hm? She might have a point; Sigyn was new to iced cream and eating it with meals (mostly he’d made meals out of a flavor, trying one entirely before he moved on to try the next..) and so it was possible that, combined with the other items he had ordered, vanilla might be a preferable flavor for the day. And that was fine, he liked vanilla. “Well, you are the expert here, so let’s try the vanilla. And the sauce on the buns, too.” He smiled up to Belle, content to follow her suggestions in order to better enjoy his meal.

It was possible that Belle might think that Sigyn used the term ‘princess’ as a form of affection for his lady love, but Sigyn, while affectionate and romantic to his core, used the term in its most practical meaning; the lady love of his for whom he was purchasing the basket was indeed an actual princess. The affection Belle heard in his voice was far from fabricated or forced, though. Sigyn loved Loki as the ocean loved the shore. Always reaching, yearning for her, but thus far he hadn’t seemed to quite reach her yet. The question caught him off guard, his head tipping to the side in thought as he tried to evaluate, “Nothing too sweet, but sweet enough. Savory if it’s full. Sometimes simple when she’s in a light hearted mood, which has been less lately, I think, and complex to pull her mind toward it.” In the doghouse? Sigyn frowned slightly, then offered another wide smile, “To see if I can make her smile today.”

The look on Belle’s face earned a further explanation. “Perhaps I am mistaken and you are not of Asgard. Many here seem to be, I apologize if I’m wrong. I am Sigyn,” he offered her his hand the way many on Midgard and those he had seen here as well do, to shake.